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157 So. 2d 237

Williams v. Brown

Louisiana Court of Appeal

Decided October 30, 1963

Louisiana Court of Appeal · decided 1963-10-30

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““. . .In those cases the courts uniformly enunciated the same interpretation as has been adopted by the tribunals of other jurisdictions having similar statutes. A concise statement of that interpretation is set forth in 48 American Jurisprudence, verbo Social Security, unemployment Insurance, etc., Section 38, page 541, thusly: “Misconduct within the meaning of an unemployment compensation act excluding from its benefits an employee discharged for misconduct must be an act of wanton or wilful disregard of the employer’s interest, a deliberate violation of the employer’s rules, a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or negligence in such degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful intent, or evil design, or show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interest or of the employee’s duties and obligation to the employer. * * *””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Doyal

“An individual shall be disqualified for benefits: [[Image here]] (2) If the administrator finds that he has been discharged for misconduct connected with his employment. Such disqualification shall continue until such time as the claimant (a) can demonstrate that he has been paid wages for work equivalent to at least ten times his weekly benefit amount following the week in which the disqualifying act occurred and (b) has not left his last work under disqualifying circumstances. In addition, if the administrator finds that such misconduct has impaired the rights, damaged or misappropriated the property of or has damaged the reputation of a base period employer, then the wage credits earned by the individual with the employer shall be canceled and no benefits shall be paid on the basis of wages paid to the individual by such employer, (emphasis added).”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Doyal

Relies on 102 So. 2d 259 - Sewell v. Sharp · 134 So. 2d 388 - Johnson v. Brown

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1963-10-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 2015

9 state decisions

30196319701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

FRUGÉ, Judge.

¶1This is an appeal from a denial of unemployment compensation benefits. The plaintiff, Myrtis L. Williams, had been employed by J. M. Poultry Co. for a period of about two years. On her last day of employment, she and another employee became engaged in a fight as a result of an argument. The plaintiff knew that fighting on the job was a cause for discharge. Because of the fight, the plaintiff was discharged from her employment. Shortly thereafter, she made a claim for unemployment compensation benefits. The local office of the Louisiana Division of Employment Security in Alexandria, Louisiana, denied plaintiff’s claim. The local office felt that her violation of the company’s policy by fighting on the job constituted misconduct, thereby disqualifying her from receiving unemployment compensation benefits. The Board of Review for the Louisiana Division of Employment Security upheld the local office. Plaintiff appealed the decision of the board to the district court. From a judgment by the district court affirming the Board of Review, plaintiff has appealed to this court.

¶2Plaintiff contends that her being involved in the fight did not constitute mis*238conduct within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Law. It is the law in this state that an individual shall be disqualified for unemployment compensation benefits if he has been discharged for misconduct connected with his employment. LSA-R.S. 23 -.1601(2). The test as to what constitutes misconduct has been well stated in Sewell v. Sharp, La.App., 102 So.2d 259, at page 261, in which the court stated:

“Misconduct, within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Act, excluding from its benefits an employee discharged for misconduct, must be an act of wanton or willful disregard of the employer’s interests, a deliberate violation of the employer’s rules, and a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has a right to expect of his employees.”

¶3Applying the above test, we must now determine whether, under the facts of this case, the plaintiff should be denied unemployment compensation benefits because of misconduct. In Johnson v. Brown, La.App., 134 So.2d 388, at page 389, this court stated the following:

“We may at the outset state that a single hotheaded incident cannot be considered the type of premeditated and seriously improper conduct which constitutes, within the.meaning of the statute, the serious cause sufficient to deny unemployment compensation benefits to an employee. An employer has, of course, the legal right to discharge an employee without cause or for any cause; but such employee ordinarily is upon application entitled to unemployment compensation benefits when his terminated employment is covered by the Louisiana Unemployment Compensation Law. LSA-R.S. 23:1471 et seq. These benefits are not paid primarily to reward the employee or to punish the employer, but rather to protect the stability of the state of the family.”

¶4Based on the above language, we feel that the present case is one which could be classified as a “single hotheaded incident”. The claimant was discharged because she engaged in a fight as a result of an argument. We feel that this was merely a single event which, although it may have justified her discharge, did not justify a denial of unemployment compensation benefits.

¶5For the foregoing reasons, we find that the claimant-appellant is entitled to unemployment compensation benefits for which she makes claim. The judgment appealed from is therefore annulled and set aside, and the case is remanded to the Board of Review for further proceedings in accordance with our decision.

¶6Reversed and remanded.

¶7HOOD, J., dissents.

¶8On Application for Rehearing.

¶9En Banc. Rehearing denied.

CULPEPPER and HOOD, JJ., are of the opinion a rehearing should be granted.
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